First Time Boondocking Plan - Tech Question

Why not simply run the generator for two to three hours every day? At a theoretical 50 percent discharge your generator will need approx 6-8 hours connected through your converter to bring the battery back up.

Sounds fine to me.

Rob for a guy from Ms I think you hsve your xxxx in order. Happy RVing

1. Recharge when morning voltage is 12.1 (6v 50%) not 12.0 (but no worries if you go to 12.0 a few times)

2. On recharge, you can't tell from the voltage what is going on, because the battery voltage will jump to be near the charger's voltage.

3. Which is the big thing--what is your charger? For fast charging you need it to go to 14.x volts, but some converters (single stage) are fixed at 13.8, which is only good for charging with shore power where time does not matter like it does with gen time.

4. So how do you know how long to recharge? You do what is called a 50-90 and stop. With no ammeter you can't tell when you get to 90 (approx. 5a per battery so when amps get down to 10a at 14.5v on a pair of 6s. So no ammeter, now what?

5. If you do have a charger that goes to the mid14s, at say 55a starting off, then you should run the gen/charger for 2.5 hrs and stop Close enough. If you have a 70a charger, make that 2.0hrs and if a 35a charger, then make it 3.0 hrs

If you only have a single stage converter at 13.8v, then you need a VEC1093DBD charger to take along to run from your gen. (approx. $115)

You are allowed to watch TV :) Just take along a small inverter and live a little--charge your phone too, whatever.

Have fun!

If no shore power available when I camp I run the genny for breakfast (coffee and skillet) and charge, then I run for a couple of hours near suppertime or mid day. that was always enough to get me by but I never did 15 days yet. Honda's are quiet so unless neighbours are close run every mid day for a few hours.

RLGetman wrote:
I will then run the generator and see how long it takes to charge back up to 13.7v.
Is this a good plan? What am I missing?
Thanks

You are missing what converter you have. A low battery needs to be charged at 14.4/14.8 volts for fast charging. Some converters do this. Other converters should but don't. And many just plug away at 13.7 and will just be slow charging after the first 20 minutes.

I started out worrying about the voltage every day. After a while I realized that if I run the generator for an hour while preparing breakfast and an hour preparing dinner I am good. I'm a weekend and vacation camper so it always gets fully charged at home between trips.

Yes... Yes... To BFL and SMK you listen!

The force is strong with you young dry-camper....... but you are not a Boondocker yet.

Seriously, though, you're off to a good start with your bank and especially that genny. We just need to know what kind of converter you have before we can guide you further.

If you have a modern rig, you are going to have some nasty, parasitic draws via CO detectors, monitors and such. Could be as much as 35A/day without turning on a single light.

There is also the furnace to be considered. If you're going to need that for a good part of each night, then you had better figure on running that genny every day, despite what converter you have.

The only thing I see that might be a problem is your RV TRAILER may not have a smart mode converter. To re-charge your trailer is a quick three hour generator run time you will need to be providing 14.4VDC to your battery bank with enough current capacity from your converter to provide around 20AMPS for each of the batteries in the battery bank. i.e. if you have two batteries in the bank you need a 40AMP source of 14.4VDC...

Then when you connect the 2KW generator to the trailer shore power cable using a RV30A-15A "long" adapter from WALMART then it should re-charge your batteries back up to their 90% charge state in around three hours of generator run time.

If you don't have a smart mode converter setup than I would purchase a Black and Decker VEC1093DBD 4AMP Smart mode portable charger to take along with you on the trip and re-charge your batteries from it.

Without an on-board smart mode converter/charger it will take your 2KW Generator around 12 hours to recharge your 50% charge state batteries back up to their 90% charge state. No short cuts allowed here - this is battery science you are dealing with.

I was never allowed to run my 2KW generator that long of a time where we usually end up at camping back off the power grid.

Roy Ken

Boondocking is about FUN

Run the genny couple times each day and enjoy the camping.